Nashville's cool cat / WR Bennett an unlikely hero for Titans

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, January 15, 2003

1/11/03-c-titansVsteelersep4F---Titans wide receiver Drew Bennett evaded Steelers cornerback Chad Scott after a reception for a 20-yard gain during the fourth quarter Saturday at the Coliseum. Staff photo by Eric Parsons (The Tennessean / Eric Parsons) less

1/11/03-c-titansVsteelersep4F---Titans wide receiver Drew Bennett evaded Steelers cornerback Chad Scott after a reception for a 20-yard gain during the fourth quarter Saturday at the Coliseum. Staff photo by ... more

Photo: Eric Parsons

Nashville's cool cat / WR Bennett an unlikely hero for Titans

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

WHEN DREW Bennett caught his first pass for Tennessee in last Saturday's playoff game against Pittsburgh, nearly 70,000 voices in the Coliseum screamed his name at once, "Drew."

And when he caught his second pass, they did it again, in full throat.

And so it went for every one of the career-high seven catches Bennett made in the Titans' overtime victory.

This is the kind of star treatment you might expect Barry Bonds to receive at Pac Bell Park. But for a visitor to Nashville, it was a startling scene. After all, we're not talking about Joe Montana or Jerry Rice or Steve McNair here.

"If you told me three years ago I'd be doing this, there's no way I'd believe you," Bennett said Tuesday.

Bennett, a Bay Area kid who played at Miramonte High and grew up in Orinda, has become something of a cult hero around Nashville. When the team took him on its promotional caravan around the state last offseason, so many people showed up to meet him that the group ran late just about every day.

Titans' souvenir sales officials say they can't keep Bennett's No. 83 jersey in stock. His name on a charity promotion is guaranteed to bring in money. He has a clothing endorsement and is a regular on a local radio sports talk show. Even McNair, the Tennessee quarterback, doesn't have any local endorsements or radio show.

Once, it was Bennett's father who might have envisioned a career in the NFL.

But Rick Bennett, who enrolled at Stanford and then transferred to Cal after a couple of days, sustained career-ending injuries in an auto accident while a college sophomore. Rick Bennett was a big running back for his era, a 215- pounder who was part of a stud recruiting class by John Ralston in 1965 that included future NFL players Gene Washington and George Buehler. He is now an attorney in Oakland.

It has been a wild ride for Drew Bennett. He was a walk-on quarterback at UCLA, started three games as a junior, then was demoted. As a senior, he was moved to wide receiver, played in parts of five games and caught only eight passes. His size (6-foot-5, 203) and good speed earned him a shot as the last of five undrafted wide receivers signed by the Titans, but he showed up with no illusions and little prospect beyond being a body at training camp.

Last among 11 wide receivers on the roster.

"There were days I went back to my hotel room and thought, 'What am I doing here?' " Bennett said.

When Bennett walked onto the practice field to begin his first training camp with the Titans, the number on his jersey was 19. Under NFL rules, once the season begins, wide receiver numbers must be in the 80s unless your name is Keyshawn Johnson. But since there aren't enough numbers in the 80s, some wide receivers get jersey numbers in the teens at training camp. Usually, the next thing they get is a ride to the airport.

Not this time.

Suddenly, Bennett began making the tough catches in camp. Fans quickly warmed to him even if they didn't know much about him. Even his number 19 jersey began selling. The coaches kept encouraging him. And, as Bennett is quick to point out, while he didn't know much about the nuances of playing wide receiver in the NFL, he also didn't have any bad habits to overcome.

There was much else to overcome, however. The roster included four holdover veterans and two wide receivers who were drafted, but Bennett earned a spot on the roster, gradually began a move up the depth chart and, by late in his rookie season in 2001, the chants of "Drew" began to ring out.

"The first few times I heard it, I thought it was, 'boo,' " Bennett said.

Because of injuries, Bennett moved into the starting lineup this year. Presumably it is just a coincidence, but his current stay in the lineup, six games, coincides with the team's six-game winning streak.

Last month, in the final game of the regular season against Houston, Bennett made one of the Titans' biggest plays of the year, a 53-yard reception on 3rd-and-24 that set up the game's only touchdown. Winning at Houston, an expansion team, should not have been much of an accomplishment but the game was close and the victory was important to the Titans because of their former life as the Houston Oilers.

Tennessee, whose most productive wideout, Derrick Mason, is a former fourth- round draft choice, has been searching for receivers for several years. In 1998, the Titans gave a big free agent contract to Pittsburgh's Yancey Thigpen,

who made little impact in three years. In 2000, they took on Cincinnati's Carl Pickens, who lasted one undistinguished season.

Bennett is as surprised as anybody that the search might end with him.

"I always thought I was going to be a quarterback," he said. "Even after I got demoted at UCLA, I still felt like I had the skills to be a quarterback. Obviously, I don't want to change anything now."